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Breath of the Spirit

Pastoral, Liturgical, Teaching, and Social Justice Moments brought to you by www.DignityUSA.org.

Breath of the Spirit is DignityUSA’s electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community, but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.

We welcome relevant homilies, inspirational writings, social justice opportunities, or theological articles from other sources also — particularly from wise women and men who can help us grow as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) and allied Catholic/Christians. You may volunteer to help with this program or send your comments by e-mailing info@DignityUSA.org ATTN: Breath of the Spirit.

Years ago one of my high school religion classes gave me a unique Christmas gift: a banner depicting Santa Claus with a question under his picture, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another?” It’s the same question the disciples of John the Baptizer ask Jesus in today’s gospel... more

By far, the most important section of today’s Isaiah reading is the line, “. . . The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of Yahweh as water covers the sea.” But the key to appreciating its importance revolves around being aware of the ancient Hebrew meaning of the words “knowledge” or “know.”

As far as I can tell, all of us long for peace and tranquility, though few of us are willing to pay the price it costs to actually obtain it.I frequently repeat spiritual author Jack Shea’s insight that the historical Jesus’ ministry revolved around answering just three questions – What do you want... more

Rarely does the future unfold exactly as we plan. There are always unexpected twists and turns, forcing us to deal with situations we never anticipated. This certainly has been the experience of people of faith, especially those committed to becoming other Christs.

We’re so accustomed to thinking and speaking about an afterlife that we can’t imagine people of biblical faith not believing in a hereafter. Yet the vast majority of the authors of the Hebrew Scriptures knew only this life. That’s why their theologies revolve around Yahweh rewarding us for our good... more

On one hand, our sacred authors presume their readers are committed to seeing things other people overlook. But on the other hand, if they actually did see those things, there’d be no need for our authors to write. It’s precisely because people of God don’t always live up to their commitments that... more

Last week’s readings zeroed in on the relationship expected of all people of faith with God. A life based on faith demands we relate with God, not try to control him/her. Today’s gospel passage outlines the first step in building and maintaining such a relationship: honesty.

We have to be careful how we interpret today’s Exodus reading. One of my Catholic grade school teachers once encouraged us to pray with upraised hands, like Moses, if we wanted to make certain God would hear our prayers and grant our requests.

Today’s II Kings reading is one of Scripture’s most significant passages. It not only shows us how Jewish faith changed through the centuries, it also challenges us to live up to the unchanging ideals of that faith. Three points.

According to most scholars of the Christian Scriptures, Luke is the first author to write presuming he and all the members of his community would die natural deaths before Jesus returned in the Parousia. What Jesus’ original disciples believed would be a short interval between his death/... more

Many of us, as children in a fit of anger, once turned to our parents and yelled, “I hate you!” I trust none of us have lost any sleep over such an encounter. We all realize it’s one thing to say those words at the age of three, and another thing to say them at the age of thirty. The words are the... more